Nauru pensioner expects to struggle after govt measures

Transcript

A pensioner on Nauru who had her fortnightly benefit stripped because she attended an anti-government protest in June says she will struggle without the payment.

64-year-old Rosavena Bop says she received a letter signed by the finance minister, David Adeang, saying she would no longer receive her $200 payment.

The letter says Cabinet made the decision last week that people involved in protests, riots and other "criminal" activities would stop receiving government privileges.

But Ms Bop told Jamie Tahana that she was never arrested or charged for attending the protest, and the decision to cancel her pension came as a complete surprise.

ROSAVENA BOP: I was called up and the teller got a shock when she saw me coming up and she said 'look here, it's blank' and I said 'never mind, forget about this. I'm proud to say I'm one of the protesters'. So I went home and then the next day I got my letter from the Ministry of Finance telling me they're taking me out of my pension.

JAMIE TAHANA: So this letter was signed by the finance minister David Adeang was it?

RB: Yes that's right, and it was approved by cabinet.

JT: And what did it say? Did it explicitly give the reason that the pension was taken?

RB: Because I took part in the protests here. And I was there, I followed the protesters.

JT: Why did you go to the protest?

RB: I went to the protest because we want our members to be back in parliament - the two members for Meneng plus the others. They've been out of parliament for over a year now and we need them to be back in parliament to give us our say in there.

JT: Were you ever arrested or charged at this protest?

RB: No I wasn't

JT: OK so you went home and then suddenly a few months later your pension's suddenly been stopped?

RB: That's right, only this month.

JT: Was there any warning that your pension may be stopped?

RB: No, no.

JT: So it came completely out of the blue for you?

RB: Yeah.

JT: Was there any kind of warning before that there would be some kind of penalty for attending the protest?

RB: No, it's only reactions, some of my family has been sacked from work just after the protesting and even the elderly or the disabled would get the sack.

JT: This pension, how much do you rely on this? Will this affect you, this decision by the government?

RB: Yes, we need it because we don't have any income and so I'm totally dependent on the $200 for the elderly for my having toilet paper, milk. That's enough for an old lady to have fortnightly.

JT: Do you know of this happening to anyone else? Have other pensioners you know of who were at the protest had this happen to them?

RB: One of my cousins and another, I just learned this morning that another received his letter yesterday and we're all from Meneng.

JT: Is there any way you'd be able to get it back? Can you take the government to court or appeal the decision or anything?

RB: Well I don't know what to do at the moment, I just wrote a letter in response to the letter they sent me. I wrote to the cabinet and I'll give it to them next week. That's what I plan to do and I don't know what else to do about this. I just want people to hear, people are afraid to talk.